Real Estate Investing for Dummies

Product Description

"This is simply the best book on the topic.”
—Randall Bell, Author, Home Owner's Manual

"Tyson and Griswold have truly opened the world of real estate investing to all by tackling often complex issues in this easy to understand and use book. I can't think of a better way to get smart about building wealth through rental properties than to read their excellent Real Estate Investing For Dummies!"
—Vern Hoven, CPA

Non-prime time TV is cluttered with infomercials about how you can buy non-prime real estate for next to nothing and get rich quick. Common sense should tell you that’s an exaggeration. (If common sense doesn’t tell you, bankers will.) Nevertheless, it is possible to get rich gradually by investing in real estate. Long term, you can expect to realize an annual return of 8 to 10% a year.

Real Estate Investing for Dummies gives you the keys to successful real estate investment, whether it’s in single family homes and condos, apartments, vacation homes, commercial properties (office, industrial, and retail), raw land, or REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). With guidance from authors Eric Tyson, MBA, a financial counselor, and Robert S. Griswold, a veteran real estate investor, you’ll discover how to:

Find and buy the best properties at a fair price
Capitalize on opportunities such as foreclosures, no money down deals, auctions, tax sales, and more
Secure financing and good mortgage terms
Value, evaluate, and negotiate everything to do with real estate
Work with agents and other professionals
Project income potential and cash flow
Handle contracts, inspections, and closings

Whether you’re interested in a fixer supper for rental, premier office space you can lease, or a vacation home you can enjoy and rent, when you become a buyer, you also become a landlord. That means you can hear from tenants any time, night or day. It means you may not hear from them when the rent is due. Real Estate Investing for Dummies also helps you:

Find and keep good tenants
Negotiate lease agreements
Insure and maintain your property
Keep good records for tax and accounting purposes

Remember, with any deal, you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. So Real Estate Investing for Dummies gives you guidelines on when and how to sell and how to reinvest to build wealth. It also lists 10 real estate investments you shouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Especially if you’re tempted by those late-night infomercials, that warning could save you a fortune!

Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #6656 in Books
Published on: 2007-01-07
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
358 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
Packed with tips on buying, financing, and improving properties

With up-to-date information on all your mortgage options.
From homes and apartment buildings to commercial and industrial properties, this friendly guide covers a wealth of real estate investments and financing options. With practical tools and expert advice, top real estate authors Eric Tyson and Robert Griswold help you maximize your investments - and watch your profits grow.

Praise for Real Estate Investing For Dummies.
"This is simply the best book on the topic."
--Randall Bell, Author, Home Owner's Manual

Discover how to:

Make real estate a part of you long-term investment plan
Pick the best properties for profit and your situation
Get the best deals on financing
Master the art of property valuation
Manage your risk and insure your properties

Get Smart! @www.dummies.com

Find listings of all our books
Choose from many different subject categories
Sign up for eTips at etips.dummies.com

About the Author
Eric Tyson, MBA, is a best-selling author and syndicated columnist. Through his counseling, writing, and teaching, he equips people to manage their personal finances better and successfully direct their investments. Eric is a former management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms and has successfully invested in real estate for more than two decades.
Eric earned his Bachelor’s degree in economics at Yale and an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Despite these handicaps to clear thinking, he had the good sense to start his own company, which took an innovative approach to teaching people of all economic means about investing and money.
An accomplished freelance personal finance writer, Eric is the author of the national bestsellers Personal Finance For Dummies and Investing For Dummies, co-author of Home Buying For Dummies and Taxes For Dummies, and was an award-winning columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. His work has been featured and quoted in dozens of national and local publications, including Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Bottom Line/Personal; and on NBC’s Today Show, ABC, CNBC, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, CNN, CBS national radio, Bloomberg Business Radio, and Business Radio Network. He’s also been a featured speaker at a White House conference on retirement planning.
Despite his “wealth” of financial knowledge, Eric is one of the rest of us. He maintains a large inventory of bumblebee colored computer books on his desk for those frequent times when his computer makes the (decreasing amount of) hair on his head fall out.

Robert S. Griswold, MSBA, is a successful real estate investor and hands-on property manager with a large portfolio of residential and commercial rental properties who uses print and broadcast journalism to bring his many years of experience to his readers, listeners, and viewers.
He is the author of Property Management For Dummies and the host of a live weekly radio talk show, Real Estate Today!, now in its 14th year (www.retodayradio.com). Robert is also the real estate expert for NBC San Diego with a regular on-air live caller segment since 1995. He’s also the lead columnist for the syndicated “Rental Roundtable” and “Rental Forum” columns published in dozens of major newspapers throughout the country and has been recognized twice as the #1 real estate broadcast journalist in the nation by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
Robert’s educational background includes having earned BS and two master’s degrees in real estate, business economics, and finance from the University of Southern California. His real estate investing and managing professional designations include the CRE (counselor of real estate), the CPM (certified property manager), the CCIM (certified commercial investment member), and the GRI (graduate, Realtor Institute).
Mr. Griswold has been retained on hundreds of legal matters as an expert in the standard of care and custom and practice for all aspects of real estate ownership and management in both state and federal cases throughout the country. Robert is the president of Griswold Real Estate Management, managing residential, commercial, retail, and industrial properties throughout southern California and Nevada.
On a personal level, Robert enjoys travel (particularly cruises), sports, and family activities. He truly enjoys real estate and tries to keep life in perspective through humor!

Customer Reviews

Great book!
This book is super if you are considering real estate as an investment. I like it so much, I take it with me virtually everywhere I go! It is a suberb resource and caters to almost everyone in every situation! A great book and will definitely get my use out of it! Delivery was super fast too!

An Well Written and Throrough Book
Real Estate Investing for Dummies is yet another excellent real estate book in the Dummies series. I have "Home Buying for Dummies" and "Property Management for Dummies." Both are highly valued, and frequently utilized, volumes in my investing library.

I have long thought that "Real Estate Investing" by McLean and Eldred was perhaps the top book for beginning real estate investors. But after reading "Real Estate Investing for Dummies," I now think the Dummies is equally as good, although it may not cover quite as much ground. Dummies is excellent in what it presents because it written in a manner that is easily understood, it provides sufficent depth, and it covers the key topics.

I particularly like the chapter on "Due Diligance." The chapter does an outstanding job of describing the components of reviewing books and records, and inspecting a property that you have bid on and have had the bid accepted by the seller. Purchase contracts provide that the sale can be canceled without loss of earnest money if the buyer's physical inspection isn't satisfactory. Following the suggestions in this chapter assure that you won't be surprised with what you get, and gives tips on how to cancel or renogiate the deal, if you need to.

I also like the final chapter, which lays out in plain English the time tested (non-infomercial guru) principals of how to make money in real estate. Buy when market conditions are conducive to buying, when properties are distressed and available as forclosures or on favorable terms with seller financing. Add value to properties. Hold on to properties that offer long-tem stable growth in rental rates. Refinance to tap into investment property equity and to further your real estate investments.

Good solid advice.

Great Information, but with a verbal tick
This book is stupendous! It covers a tremendous amount of information to get you started in real estate investing. My wife and I are starting a real estate holding company and this book has been the foundation of our learning.

The only strange thing about the book is that for some reason the authors decided to only use the feminine pronouns "she" or "her" when referring to general individuals, such as "It's very difficult for an owner to lose her home and it's often even more difficult for her to..."

At first this was just odd, but it became a real distraction and annoyance that they never use "he or she" or the common practice in English of using the male pronoun for such situations.

Despite this sort of printed verbal tick, this is an excellent book with a lot of information.

Friday, August 15, 2008